PAUL FELDER AND BRAZEN BOXING CONTINUE TO BEST AMA

Philadelphia, PA – May 16, 2013 – At Cage Fury Fighting Championships 24 this past Saturday night, though the main card featured two title fights, it was the undercard showdown between Brazen Boxing & MMA’s Paul Felder out of Philadelphia and the highly acclaimed AMA Fight Club’s top prospect, Corey Bleaken, that stole the show.

The back story between these two camps goes back to CFFC 20, when Paul Felder quickly and dominantly put away the brash Rick Nuno (also from AMA) in a mere three minutes and fifteen seconds. Internet chatter and excuses ensued as much of the AMA faithful believed Felder’s destruction of Nuno to be a fluke. Yet, having earned a record of 4-0 at that point, with four KO/TKOs to his credit, one wonders how any educated fight fan could doubt Felder’s abilities.

Enter Corey Bleaken. Bleaken is an accomplished amateur wrestler who, like Rick Nuno, boasted a strong amateur MMA record and a 1-0 professional record when each of them faced Felder. Also like Nuno, Bleaken had never beaten a fighter with a winning record at either the amateur or professional level. It seemed a bit ambitious for AMA to believe taking on a 4-0 Felder would be the time that trend would end. But believe it they did, as Bleaken stated in interviews leading up to the bout that he planned on “destroying” Felder and avenging the quick, yet substantial, beating given to his teammate. Beliefs aside, the night belonged to Felder.

On paper the Felder/Bleaken fight appeared to be a classic striker versus grappler contest, but someone forgot to tell that to Felder and Bleaken. Both showed the fighting public that they could learn and use each other’s dominant skill-set as they put together performances that were both skilled and well rounded.

Almost as impressive as Felder’s newfound wrestling ability was Bleaken’s aggressive and effective striking against one of the most polished young 155 pound strikers in the region. The fight was truly a great display of skill, aggression, and determination from both combatants. Most casual fans in the audience (at least in my section) believed rounds 1 and 3 were all Felder and that a close second round belonged to Bleaken. In the end all three judges (as did I) scored the fight for Felder. But take nothing away from Bleaken, as I believe he was easily the second best 155 pound fighter on the entire card.

A matchup between Bleaken and CFFC poster boy, Bobby Fabrizi, would certainly be interesting, as Fabrizi has yet to post a victory against any fighter with a professional win. His wins come against opponents with a combined record of 0-5, so Bleaken would be a substantial test to clean up a cluttered CFFC 155 pound division.

The obvious question: where does the impressive Felder go from here? A CFFC title maybe? Word from CFFC Champion Sean Santella is that Corey Bleaken pushes around the Miller brothers. If that’s true, then… how good is Paul Felder? My guess is that the talented young Felder will be amongst the UFC’s most talent rich division in the next year or two.